Innocence lost
by FeralFighter
Summary: It was a simple diplomatic mission - Come to a strange planet to form an alliance with it's people, throw a celebration for said alliance, eat self into a blissful food coma. Somehow Lance even managed to mess that up...


**Hello new fandom~**  
 **I haven't written anything in about 10 months so huge thanks to my mate Den for helping out and proof reading my mess (and being the trooper who I inflicted the idea on in the first place :D )**

"And you all thought I couldn't do it. Ye of little faith guys, ye of little faith." Lance bragged through the holographic screen projected on the windscreen of the shuttle; Allura and Coran smiled brightly at the blue paladin, while Keith just rolled his eyes.

"It's not like you've exactly proven to be reliable on previous missions as a group to give us any vote of confidence Lance." Keith scoffed.

Lance couldn't help the mischievous grin from stretching on his face, "Aww Mad Max is just jealous that I had a party thrown for me for forming an alliance with the Zurein's."

"Mad Max...?"

The mischievous grin was gone.

"Are you kidding me? Mad Max. THE mullet man. Keith I swear to god references are wasted on you if you don't even know who Mel Gibson is."

"Of course I know who Mel Gibson is, I just-"

"Alright you two that's enough," Allura interrupted, trying to prevent another silly argument. "Lance I'm so proud of you for succeeding with this mission on your own for your first attempt. Thanks to you we'll have much needed support from the Zurein's to help our cause!"

Lance beamed at the princess' praise.  
When Allura had brought up the notion that the paladins needed to practice and implement their diplomatic skills to form alliances to help Team Voltron, everyone agreed that it was a great idea. It was when the she had everyone go to seperate planets individually that most of them decided it was some kind of sick joke.

Lance. Alone. To be left in charge of convincing a strange alien race to become their allies with little to no experience.

No one there to stop him from saying anything stupid and costing them much needed support.

No one to stop him from harassing some poor attractive alien.

Lance had gone out to prove the naysayers wrong and succeeded. The negotiations were surprisingly easy and in spite of the race being infamous for their tenacious warriors, they certainly knew how to make their guests feel welcome, and how to throw a great banquet that would surely result in a food coma.

"So I'm just going to hang around for a bit longer before heading back to the castle if that's alright with you?"

"That's fine, the others are still away and they don't seem to be in any trouble. Just be ready to return if anything goes wrong."

"Will do. Stay beautiful princess." Lance winked, earning an annoyed look from Allura before her image disappeared.

The blue paladin couldn't help but chuckle as he leaned back in his seat; enjoying the pleasant buzzing from a solid day of accomplishments. Succeeding his mission while rubbing it in Keith's face was by far the pinnacle of success, and the fact that he was praised by Allura only continued to stroke his ever inflating ego. Heck, even being treated like royalty by the people of Zureinos was definitely another highlight. So far the only downside for the whole day was doing this mission via shuttle rather than Blue, as Coran pointed out a lack of suspicious activity therefor no reason to bring her. Oh well, beggars can't be choosers and it's nothing worth sulking over.

With the craving to eat more food, despite the terrifying sight of local cuisine being surprisingly decent, the blue paladin found the motivation to get up and satisfy his grumbling belly.

Not even 5 steps off the ramp Lance felt something was off; the cries from the natives seemed to be louder than earlier, less cheerful, more intense, more chaotic. What brought Lance to the conclusion that something was wrong was the trails of smoke from the inner part of the city had multiplied, dirty black instead of hazy white like they had been before he excused himself to the shuttle.

Eyebrows furrowed at the sight, Lance reached for his bayard, the bulky blaster forming in his hands and ready to go if his unpleasant suspicion was right (he prayed he was wrong). Running from the docking bay and into the city, the young paladin's hunch was unfortunately right, but he was still shocked to find they were under attack by drones and soldiers in very familiar armor.

'What the hell?! Coran said there weren't any Galra sightings in the area!' Lance mentally screamed, working himself up into a slight panic.

The price for his shell shocked hesitation resulted in a shot to the side of his helmet, effectively forcing him to stumble. In spite of the knock to the head, Lance was quick enough to raise his shield just as he was assaulted by a barrage of bullets.

Lying in wait for the drones to give him an opening, he took a moment to observe his surroundings. All around him was nothing but chaos; buildings crumbling and aflame with smoke polluting the air, the sight of the young and elderly who were fleeing or went into hiding while the Zureins who were fit for combat fought with every tooth and nail they had. The sight of the static bloody bodies of the innocent clearly overshadowed the number of the fallen Galra only served as a wake up slap over the severity of the situation.

Lance couldn't believe his eyes, even if he stood in the dead center of the chaos unfolding. However, despite not having his lion and other teammates nearby at a moment's call, it was not the time to lose it. Damn it all, he was a paladin; a defender of the universe! He won't back down for a second to let the Garla invaders get what they want.

Once the Galra drones ceased fire, Lance immediately counterattacked. Even with a few dodgy misses, he managed to hit one in the leg and chest, and donning the other with a new eye socket the size of a plasma bullet. The result? A pile of scrap metal as they tumbled to the ground in seconds

Making a mad dash throughout the remains of the ambushed city, Lance's attempt to contact the castle only sent him painful static in reply.

"Damn it...!" He growled to himself, scowling more at the damage to his helmet which most likely messed with his communication feature, making his chance of calling for help non existent.

This certainly confirmed that he's on his own on this planet invasion, and with zero way to hold out in the wreckage.

He wasn't able to dwell much on his situation as he persisted in fighting back. Throughout this terrifying ordeal Lance would instruct those fleeing to get out of the city while covering them from the oncoming Galra troops that just wouldn't relent; taking down as many soldiers as he could till he could press on to find others trying to escape or give backup to the Zureins defending themselves.

So focused on protecting everyone and the carnage around him Lance left himself wide open, and only realized his mistake when the searing hot sensation of a plasma bullet grazed his side. With a cry of pain Lance spun around, ignoring his injury as he raised his gun to aim at an unfamiliar Galra commander who sneered at him.

"Well isn't this a surprise. Where is your lion and the rest of your team paladin?"

Lance couldn't help but wince at his injury as he tried to take aim at the commander before him. "Sorry to disappoint, but I don't need my lion or the others to kick all of your purple butts."

The commander snorted a laugh at the youths bravado. "I'd commend you on your bravery, but I'm sure it's just your stupidity talking. You're heavily outnumbered."

"I've got plenty of back up, the Zurein's are with me and they're not too happy to see their home being invaded." Lance argued.

"The Zurein's are admirable in their efforts but they're just throwing themselves to the slaughter. Could someone as young as you be able to handle the weight of all that blood on his hands?" The Galra smirked as the blue paladin glared at him, "And how could you possibly be a threat when you've made the same mistake twice?"

'Mistake?' Lance thought, eyes widening and heart dropping into his gut when he felt the barrel of a gun pressing into his back.

Oh.

Taking shaky breaths Lance commanded his bayard to dematerialize back to his armor and raised his hands in the air. He wasn't stupid, he had lost and any attempts to fight back was just tempting fate.

'Commander Kinter, permission to shoot?" The soldier asked as he started digging the gun into Lances spine, the paladin grunting at the unpleasant sensation.

"Hmm, to rid the empire of one pest would be most convenient," Kinter mused, watching the glaring human before him nervously gulp brought an amused grin. "But I think I have better plans for this young paladin. Restrain him and take him back to the ship."

The soldier moved the gun away from Lance; grabbing his wrists and roughly yanking them behind his back where they clamped them together with metal cuffs. Lance gave no resistance, deciding to continue giving the Galra commander the dirtiest look he could currently muster as the gun returned to jabbing his back, forcing him to walk.

"So what's the plan, anal probing?" Lance joked, earning incredibly scandalous reactions to some of the soldiers. "Jeez, you're appalled by that? What kind of aliens are you."

The smartarse teasing were just to help calm his nerves from going hysteric, the horrified expressions were just a delightful bonus.

Kinter seemed as equally disgusted as his underlings, "You humans are a very strange and disturbed race. I'd cut it out before I decide to take your tongue."

Lance groaned before leaning back against the side of the ship, shifting around a bit to get slightly comfortable. Speaking of the ship...

"So you've managed to fly under the radar using someone else's ship."

"What better way to invade a planet than to take over one of their own fleet. The Zurein's were too stupid to suspect a thing." Kinter grinned menacingly, putting Lance on edge again.

They both remained quiet for the rest of the trip until they docked on a Galra command ship where they forced Lance down the fuchsia lit halls and, to his surprise, the control room. It was a surprisingly spacious room, hosting a handful of droids and Galra at computers while the large platform remained abandoned (reserved for the commander Lance assumed), and the most eye catching feature was the giant window at the front of the ship having a perfect view of Zureinos.

Being so captivated by the sight of the swampy green planet Lance jumped at the unexpected contact of a Galra soldier grabbing him and removing his cuffs.

"What...?"

"Paladin, I offer you a choice," Kinter announces as he moved his way to the platform and began typing away at his keyboard. "Either serve under the name of Emperor Zarkon and fight for us, or refuse and be nothing more than a pathetic slave."

"Is that meant to be some kind of sick joke?! Like hell if I agree to either of those!" Never in his life did Lance hold so much disbelief and disgust in his voice. No way in hell was he going to be their dog or their little toy to torture.

Unfortunately the unpleasant grin on Kinter's face was like having ice injected into Lance's veins; at that very moment he knew he made a mistake.

"I was hoping you'd put up a fight Paladin, it makes it more fun to persuade you. Better take one last look."

Lances eyes widened as he watched the Commander hit a button which was shortly followed by the sound of a machine powering up. Snapping his head to the window he realized what was about to happen.

No.

Nonononono.

Everything felt surreal for a moment, he didn't even realize he had ran till he noticed his hands were pressed against glass. Eyes bulging, unable to look away; he felt completely useless as he watched the bright yellow beam being fired from the ship make contact with Zureinos. It took less than a minute for the planet to explode into a billion tiny pieces, tears began to spill and he couldn't control the agonized screams that ripped from his throat.

"Now that you understand your position you WILL join us or your home planet is next. Do you hear me?"

Lance, who's body was shaking violently and sobbing uncontrollably, somehow managed to nod his head to acknowledge what the Galra had said.

"Will you fight for the Galra?"

Hesitating, he managed to settle his grief for a brief moment to choke out a feeble 'yes' before going full swing into another fit of sobbing and tears.

"Good. Someone take him to his cell, I don't want to see more of this unsightly display."

Two droids grabbed an arm each as they dragged Lance away from the window and out of the control room, his pain filled wails could still be heard from behind the doors, slowly becoming more distant the closer he was to the prison cells.

He was a paladin of Voltron, pilot of the blue lion, a defender of the universe. It was meant to be a simple diplomatic mission...

How did he manage to fuck up so bad?

 **Debating whether to throw this up on Tumblr :/**  
 **I may have also done a drawing for this back when this story had first spawned in my head...**


End file.
